SEEING THE WORLD BETWEEN TWO EARS:

Exploring Trails on Horseback in the Western U.S.

By Gillian Larson

When I set off on my first long-distance horseback adventure in 2014, riding from Mexico to Canada on the Pacific Crest Trail, I thought it was a one-time fling before settling down to “real life” and a master’s degree program in biology. Little did I know that spending months at a time in the backcountry with my horses would become my life’s focus, as I viewed the world from a whole new perspective and later got to share what I had learned with others.

I didn’t have a clue what I was about to encounter on that first trip— the trail obstacles like downed trees or high-elevation snowpack, the difficulty of providing sufficient food and water for my horses, the importance of the right equipment for them as well as myself.